However, I received about 60 support emails concerning curiosities about Linux (one of which was my fault technically, but which passed just fine on OpenJDK and failed on Oracle). The amount of support from Linux is pretty disproportionate, and indeed, if this were a business (which it is - hah!) and I had to employ someone to take care of the support, we'd literally not have made a penny on Linux sales because of the myriad little hassles that Webstart and Java have.

Well the main issue here is how crappy Java Webstart is, why not just treat linux users like you do on mac and windows, as mentioned above by delt0r, that is provide a downloadable bundle. Pretty easy to just create an executable batch file (and if needed include your own jre), it worked out pretty well for Tribal Trouble.

You could also just use something like the openSUSE build service which will automatically create packages for all the major distributions.

What's wrong with unpack and play is that the newer breed of Linux users, including myself, just want stuff that works like it does on other operating systems, not stuff that requires brain power. Ubuntu is slowly coming around to this idea. Mac is even walling itself off to anything remotely resembling an ordinary PC with its app store. The world wants simple! And so do I for that matter. So unpack ain't going to work - I need to install using some sort of crazy Linux installation thing.

Installers that ask for passwords and ask about 10 other questions *are not simpler* than unpack and run. In fact they are more complicated. All mac/windows users I have ever encountered know how to double click a zip file, unpack and run. But these same people have asked for my help with install shield crap.

All current Linux package managers need root and install globally. This is not what a game should ever do IMO (i don't have root for my work machines for example, but can install quake/ET). Of course a simple script that asks what directory to put it into and then kde/gname link would be easy enough.

However its your game. As a hard core linux fan who no longer even boots to windows, I understand why its going to be a long time before games come to linux properly. And even then, I probably won't be running that distro.

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.--Albert Einstein

Definitely, it shouldn't need root, but surely there's some sort of instally thing for Linux that can be used to just install things for the current user? I mean, all it has to do is put an icon and shortcut in some menus here and there and unzip some stuff to a directory in the user's home directory somewhere. Reliably on several Linux flavours running Gnome Desktop.

(BTW, being a linux and Java expert - you have probably figured out all you need to do to make your own is to download the resources referenced in the jnlp file, unzip the ones in the native section, and make a shellscript that calls java -cp <all the jars> etc)

The world wants simple! And so do I for that matter. So unpack ain't going to work - I need to install using some sort of crazy Linux installation thing.

While you are right in your argumentation, I really hate to be forced to use an installer (Windows JDK installation anyone!!!) when I am perfectly capable to download and unpack stuff myself. So a multiplatform ZIP distribution with a windows batch and *nix shell skript is IMHO mandatory - just make it an "on your own risk" option and make clear that you can't offer any support for it.

Just (finally) tried it, and actually pre-ordered It works just great here on Ubuntu, running Compiz with wobbly windows and everything (on an ATI card no less).

My very first impressions:* In the first few levels, the enemies didn't have a chance at all (they hardly even made it to the screen) but I did have to wait a bit until they finally appeared. In fact I had to wait long enough to think the game was waiting for me to do something and I was already doing something wrong...* Love the polish and typical PuppyGames look & feel.* I'd change the menus a bit so that it's a bit more "game-y". In my opinion, those buttons on the bottom of the screen made it feel like a boring OS menu bar. Why not have those options right there in the middle of the screen?

* In the first few levels, the enemies didn't have a chance at all (they hardly even made it to the screen) but I did have to wait a bit until they finally appeared. In fact I had to wait long enough to think the game was waiting for me to do something and I was already doing something wrong...

The game does wait... until you place your first refinery, or you run out of money to build a refinery. A tip appears explaining this Should give you time to scope the environment and make some defences before you begin digging.

The Ultrabundle is changing at the weekend... possibly becoming slightly more expensive

The game does wait... until you place your first refinery, or you run out of money to build a refinery. A tip appears explaining this Should give you time to scope the environment and make some defences before you begin digging.

The Ultrabundle is changing at the weekend... possibly becoming slightly more expensive

I think it is not a coincidence that Markus Persson did a tweet a few minutes before most of the game sites from the Humble Indie Bundle went down . I guess that is the thing to do with twitter... I am sure that HIB has gotten attention from many places though.

Isn't it a bit of a gamble to sell a brand new game at "pay what you want"? You game seem like the most valuable of the bunch. Do you all get the same cut if I may ask?

We are notch-tweetproof now, but not Humble Bundle proof. Our Amazon RDS instance was flattened with 150 simultaneous connections. Then it turns out it was a really n00bish mistake - our latest blog post is displayed on our homepage... hitting the database every time. Doh. So it should be a bit more steady now.

Well, it looks like sales should be able to surpass 1M$ easily, so it could be a very wise choice. Possibly selling faster than minecraft even (for one week). I think the top contributor is a JGO memeber and an indie fan Good stuff.

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